Backrooms(2026)

I have a ton of respect for what Kane Parsons' has accomplished. Creating a massive audience with youtube shorts and then making the quantum leap to a fully featured film is always going to be an impressive story. It's a natural progression to prove your vision and craft with shorts. The first half of the film had me hooked. Chiwetel Ejiofor didn't need to prove himself but he was still oustanding in his role. Newcomer (to me at least) Renate Reinsve held her own, confident opposite Chiwetel as his shrink with a tortured history. We have to talk about cinematography and they nailed it - scenes in the backrooms are jarring and uncanny. The mustard hue, angles that don't make any sense and architecture designs from the mind of schizphrenic genius having a manic episode. Accompanied by a fantastic score it is very atmospheric and creates a beautiful and strange tension. Plenty of tense and frightening moments in the first half, moments that were earned with the build up. With that said, the latter half didn't quite do it for me. I felt too confused to be invested at times and the pacing slowed a little too much for me that I felt frustrated and my attention waned. I think if I had more of questions answered, the pacing would have been acceptable. Great technical feats and lead actors were absolutely commited to the role, but pacing issues in the latter half and more questions than answers did feel like I didn't quite get my fill of psychological horror.